Sounds good, Raven. One could use a variety of peppers to vary the heat and taste a bit.

I’ve discovered Pepperidge Farm Puff pastry dough. Since I am in no way a baker, it is nice to have a store bought goody to play with. I’m working on what to use to stuff them with. I’ve had them with a mix of chopped cranberries, blueberries and cream cheese for a desert type pastry. Now I’m looking more towards crab, some sort of veggies and a mild cheese. I have some Gorgonzola.

The goldens have moved down into the lowlands here dbadass, there are two that I see regularly.
Heading out this afternoon for the Bosque NWR, no cranes or geese yet, the ducks are starting to filter in. The aplomado falcons are regular visitors now, hope to see them.

dbadass “It is cold and windy here and I made some chicken stock last night. Seems like a good day for soup. looking for ideas. Post your favorites….”

Here’s a soup I made regularly during the summer I was chef at Hannagan Mountain Lodge in AZ. As one woman was overheard to remark, “I don’t even like mushroom soup, and I’m going back for my third bowl!”

This recipe is pared down from the dining room version, but it comes out the same. I specify Knorr bouillon cubes because to me they’re the best. Other labels will work, however.

Preparation:
Simplest way is to use a pressure cooker. A large and deep saucepan will work well, but cooking times will be substantially longer.

Combine Part A ingredients in cooker or pot, cook till barley is soft and starting to fluff (about 30 mins in pressure cooker). Carefully reserve about one cup of the broth and set it aside. Then add all of Part B ingredients, return to heat, cook (under pressure) for about 20 minutes, or in regular pot until carrots have softened nicely.

Meanwhile, make the roux:
Part C ingredients: Melt the butter in a small skillet or saucepan, whisk in the flour till smooth, cook over med heat, stirring, for a minute or two, until the mixture bubbles. It should be creamy smooth, add a little butter or flour to adjust if necessary. Remove from heat and stir in the reserved broth, then the sour cream, the mustard, and the dill. Whisk till smooth.

Finally, add the Part C blend to the pot, stir till smoothly incorporated and blended, return to heat and bring to a soft boil. Stir until the soup starts to thicken, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to rest for five minutes or so, then serve with favorite croutons.

TO PREPARE:
In a pan, layer the pork, covered by Ancho ‘slabs’, covered by 1 cup of chopped onions. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet, add the pork and dust liberally with Adobo powder (reserve Anchos and onions, separately); saute until the pork chunks are browned and fully cooked (about a half-hour, with regular stirring). Meanwhile, chop the Ancho chiles and, once the pork is cooked, add to the skillet along with a cup of beer. Stir and simmer for 15 min., give or take; remove from heat and set aside.

Chop the fresh-roasted, peeled and seeded Poblano chiles (about 3 cups when chopped). Add and gently stir in the spice mixture, then set aside.

Combine the potatoes and celery in a sauce pan, add two cups of water plus a liberal dusting of Adobo powder, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes just begin to soften. Remove from heat and set aside.

FINAL PREPARATION
To a sufficiently deep pot, add the chile/spice mixture, the remaining 2 cups of chopped onions, the sauteed and seasoned pork, the remaining beer, plus the potatoes, the celery, and their pot liquor. Stir. Add two cups of beef broth plus two cups water, stir again, and bring to a simmer. Serve

Adobo Seco Seasoning (my version)

Adobo is, for all practical purposes, a type of seasoned salt; it is also far more complex and far more subtle than are the more typical varieties of seasoned salts on the supermarket shelf. It’s simple to prepare:

Directions
— 1.Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Place chicken in the hot oil; cook, stirring only occasionally, until brown, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle fajita seasoning over the browned chicken and stir well to coat. Add the red and green bell pepper, poblano pepper, and onion to the seasoned chicken. Stir and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes.

— 2.Pour the fire roasted tomatoes, black beans, and chicken broth into the pot with the chicken and vegetables. Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

— 3.Season the soup with hot sauce, salt, and pepper to taste before serving.

I usually go local artisan bread becuase I don’t really know shit about baking. I grew up with german rivvles or whatever they are called in my chicken soup and I love matso and all dumplings but I don’t know how to do it myself. I have been having a hankering for chicken n dumplings with if that counts…

Cream the marrow, add the salt, nutmeg, and the egg yolk. Mix in gradually the parsley and enough matzoth meal to hold together. Wet the hands and roll the mixture into small balls. Add to boing soup and cook 15 minutes.

——

All of the recipes are from Epicure’s Delight (1944)

Let me know if any are interested in
“Frogs’ Legs Newburg” or
“Frogs’ Legs in Cream”

I was ‘raised’ (sotospeak) in my dad’s small town bakery in S. Minn., worked there most of my growing up years. I still make all my own bread, pastries, buns, rolls, pies, allathat. Haven’t bought any supermarket baked stuff for I dunno how many years. It’s so simple to do at home that really I can’t figure out why anyone would ever pay four bucks for a loaf of (last week’s) baked wallpaper paste off the supermarket shelf. Even if I billed my time at $100 per hour, the five or six minutes of labor I expend could barely push the price per loaf up to four bucks! 😉

Living alone has cut into my bread baking considerably. The type of bread I love to bake and eat takes considerably more than five or six minutes and it does not keep well. When I was living with a wife and two kids, a couple of baguettes could disappear even before dinner.

Last winter I was cranking out cookies a few times a week, which made me (a) very popular at work and (b) 20-30 pounds heavier.

Two boys, a 13 year old and an 18 year old, were using adjacent urinals when the older boy saw the younger boy staring at him.

What are you looking at, are you queer or something?

No, no, I’m just amazed at how big you are. How did it get so big?

Oh, that’s easy, I rub lard on it every night. Lard makes it grow big.

Really, will that work for me?

Yes it will, try it for a couple of weeks.

About a month later the two meet again in the boys bathroom and the older boy asked the younger how his endeavor was working? The younger boy expressed his disappointment about his lack of growth, and felt it might even be getting smaller.

Upon further inquiry, the younger one explained that every night just before he got in bed he went to the kitchen and took a handful of Crisco and rubbed on his penis.

Well, no wonder its getting smaller, I told you to use lard boy, Crisco is shortening!

I wear t-shirts, some with social justice issues or causes: yesterday it was ‘Got Kidney?’ about organ donations. Some folk ask and I’m very willing and eager to discuss the need for (all) organ donations.

Al-righty – I know no gentlemen who visit the Zoo are like this but can you, please, explain why:

On the occasion I wear the “Arson Task Force”
S.F.F.D. circling the logo of the fire department –
the stares are there but no one asks.

Men stare the most:
Could it be the gender of the person wearing such and that logo just happens to take up a good portion of the left breast?

For heaven sake – if you’re going to stare – at least introduce yourself or say something completely stupid… even blithering gibberish would save face for these ‘gents’.

My dear dragonfly, I learned all I needed to know about hurricanes when I rode out the edge of Camille while living in Gitmo (worse than any full hurricane I ever experienced), and endured five or six of them in the 5 years I lived in Louisiana.

Yeah, Hooda, I’ve used Marsala before in similar sauces — it’s the best. Never tried it with venison, though — bet it’ll be grand!

Mouth watering here. We’re going to have to settle for fresh rainbow trout in beer batter with a side of Asian slaw plus a pile of parsnip slices, coated in egg then rolled in white cornmeal and baked till moderately crunchy.

I don’t want to speak for db, but that sounds disgusting, Hooda. Which means it’s probably the best idea ever.

Personally, I’d mush together equal parts of butter and flour (like a roux, but not melted), and then put little blobs of it into the marsala sauce and keep stirring until the sauce is shiny and the right consistency. I don’t know what that’s called, but it’s yummy.

I’ve discovered Pepperidge Farm Puff pastry dough. Since I am in no way a baker, it is nice to have a store bought goody to play with. I’m working on what to use to stuff them with. I’ve had them with a mix of chopped cranberries, blueberries and cream cheese for a desert type pastry. Now I’m looking more towards crab, some sort of veggies and a mild cheese. I have some Gorgonzola.

Take some cooked, diced chicken and mix it with some softened cream cheese and a little softened butter. Scoop the cheese, butter and chicken goo into that puff pastry. Fold the pastry over, pinch it closed at bake in the oven until the pastry is a nice golden brown. Serve the puffs drizzled with a little white sauce and veggies of your choice.

Oh, man, it’s October and the prickly pear fruits are deep red, aren’t they! Sigh. We knew a sacred place in AZ, about 4-5000 feet, where prickly pear perfection coincided with my b-day (one day before the 6014th anniversary of the creation of the earth which happened at 9:00 AM on October 23, 4004 BC, according to a Biblical scholar named Usher). Anyway, given all of that you can see why prickly pear do as they do.

I would love to have the chance to cook with prickly pear! I’m just stuck with puff pastry stuffed with venison, muchrooms and spinach cooked in a marsala sauce. Did I mention I threw some grape tomatoes in at the end as a side?

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place tomatoes, eggplant, onion on large baking sheet. Brush vegetables with oil and crushed garlic. Roast until vegetables are tender and brown in spots, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven. Scoop eggplant out of “skin” into heavy large saucepan; discard skin. Add remaining roasted vegetables and thyme to same saucepan. Add 4 cups vegetable stock and Braggs mixture; bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook until onion is very tender, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly.

pachydiplax, the love affair between the dragonfly and the butterfly is, well to put it delicately, unnatural. (not in that respect – you can love any species you desire). I’m just afraid the ‘natural’ world will take over and – once you have tasted the butterfly your love affair is done.
(dragonflies have been known to dine upon Lepidoptera — making for a very short courtship!)

Rule number one: there are no real measurements: use a ratio system: two parts carrots to one part red cabbage. The parsely should be no greater than your cabbage. Gives it a nice mix of orange, red and green.

In a food processor, finely chop up your two parts baby carrots.

In your food processor, finely chop up your one part red cabbage.

In your food processor, finely up chop your parsely .

Mix all in a bowl.

Spoon in your safflower mayo until it reaches that soupy mayo/slaw mixture.

Add the red wine vinegar until it reaches the tartness you desire.

Add the dill, garlic and carroway seed to reach a taste you like.

Let it chill a bit and add more mayo, vinegar and seasonings, if necessary.

2ebbandflow, we don’t use too much garlic, but just enough to taste. The beauty of this recipe is that it’s personal and to YOUR liking. We like alot of dill and vinegar with the safflower mayo, but you might like a lot of garlic. Definitely use garlic powder rather than chopped garlic as chunks of garlic just don’t work. And yes, it’s always better after a night in the fridge.

Well, ok, maybe not upon your first meeting with the lovely potato land Lepidoptera but urges can only be kept at bay for so long.
You could be the first generations to make a go of it…
I’ll keep my talons crossed that is the case.

Speaking of dragonflies – none of your relatives were about this scudded sky day.

Lots and lots of Pelicans- looking like B-52s as they came in for a landing on the rocky island in the marsh.

Cormorants; coots; gulls; great blue herons; snowy and great egrets; phalaropes; canada geese; sparrows; finches; red tailed hawks; kites; kestrels; burrowing owls, meadow larks…
there must have been a starling conventions as they were on each power tower by the dozens.

pachy, with the new system at TP – you have to be there the moment a troll posts – or it *poofs* goes away never to be seen again. It screws up continuity -not knowing what blathering had been spewed by the parasitic nematode.

Speaking of owls, ebb, I was out walking about 10PM one night last week and came upon an owl perched on a speed limit sign. I was walking toward the sign and saw that there was something on the sign but couldn’t distinguish what it was until I was about 20″ away. The owl remained there, only turning it’s head to watch me, as I walked past.

In its current reincarnation, Google Chrome is unbeatable. It provides near-instant searches, extremely rapid refresh and access to the most recent eight sites visited with a built-in weighting factor once your habits are established.

It also remembers your more recent searches based on the characters entered – bolding those in a drop-down list as you enter type in the address text box.

It is compatible with most ISPs – but some of those can’t seem to deal with it as your default browser – Earthlink is one. I merely installed an additional ICON on my desktop and also invoke Chrome in my start-up command file. I use MS IE for my ISP and mail box. If I have to access a URL from my ISP or its mailbox, I copy the URL and paste it in Chrome.

The learning curve is about two weeks because old habits are hard to break.

It hides most of the menu functions under a “Tools” button to the right of the address text box. If you take the trouble to learn the equivalent keyboard combinations, navigation can be quick rapid as no mouse movement is required.

In a study done about 25 years ago, it was discovered that keyboard navigation was two to three times quicker than with a mouse. There are some dual paths, i.e. F3 for ‘Find’; in the keyboard functions which yield even faster results; (Ctrl+F is equivalent to F3.) Not all of the F-Key functions are supported in all instances which makes it better to learn functions derived from the old WordStar “Ctrl+” combinations.

Some of us do what’s called night time ‘drive-by’ birding.
We happen to have located where some roost at night (that in itself was a grand feat).

Our downtown pair: one is an academic roosting on a Residence Hall at the University.
The other on what we call the ‘decorative piece’: a feature that looks like an upside down T that kind of frames a window at a major hotel!

We have a small group of “Peregrine Paparazzi” who shoot hundreds of photos at a time. They can’t really shoot the night time spots – one of the photographers may be looking into infrared
photography.

It’s quite the scene during the day when three or four of the photographers are present: you’ll see 300 mm; 500 mm; 600 mm and 800 mm.
(some of us keep wondering which will be the first to break out the big bucks for 1000 mm).
Then there are those of us who just have 8x binocs and are quite happy to see a bird without having to ‘frame it just right’!

Whom, it had been many years since viewing this on PBS. I was totally awe-struck at even them attempting the climb, never mind the ensuing catastrophes. One was compelled to keep viewing – you just had to know what the outcome was
(having not heard nor read about this before viewing).

(dragonflies have been known to dine upon Lepidoptera — making for a very short courtship!)

WHAT!!!???

You did read on of my good wishes, didn’t you.

You could be the first generations to make a go of it…
I’ll keep my talons crossed that is the case.

:My suggestion would be to keep a pocketful of gnats and mosquitoes – so whenever the pachydiplax looks hungry, toss a few his way. Of course I’m uncertain how different the ‘amorous’ and ‘ravenous for food’ looks differ.

It seems to be taking a bit of time for the flagged comments to be ‘disappeared’ over at TP.
pipsqueak is going ballistic that none are paying attention to him.
Not only bold but very large size font…
a bit pathetic.

CHAPARRAL, N.M. – A man accidentally shot his young son and his own mother Saturday morning.
The man was cleaning his 9 mm semiautomatic handgun when he shot both his 4-year-old son and his own mother, Doña Ana Sheriff’s Department investigator Bo Nevarez said.
“The grandmother was sitting behind the boy when the gun accidentally discharged striking the boy, continuing through, striking his grandmother in the abdomen as well,” Nevarez said.
Both victims were taken by ambulance to University Medical Center in El Paso, where they were listed in critical condition Saturday afternoon, Nevarez said.
The shooter is believed to be a 26-year-old man who identifies himself as a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and a corrections officer, but Nevarez declined to confirm or deny that information.
In one of the photos on the man’s MySpace profile he is seen showing one of his sons how to hold a small handgun, is titled, “never to [sic] early to play with guns.”
The case will be forwarded to the 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office to determine possible criminal charges.